Why We Need More Boring Games

Over at Gamasutra, ’serious games’ creator Ian Bogost is making the case that video games should be more mundane, particularly discussing of Nintendo’s Brain Age: “It’s certainly a very different kind of game from Halo or even Miyamoto’s own Zelda series, games that allow the player to inhabit complex fantasy worlds. Instead, much of Brain Age’s success seems to come precisely from the ordinariness of its demands.”
So - what of this? Would games become more accessible if they tapped into everyday things a little bit more, as opposed to spiralling off into fictional realities? Bogost suggests: “As a medium becomes more familiar, it also becomes less edgy and exciting. This is what [clothing designer] Marc Ecko means when he refers to movies as demystified. Over time, media becomes domesticated, and domestication is a mixed blessing.”
But, he cautions, there’s an upside: “On the one hand, it allows broader reach […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (simonc) and software by Elliott Back